India’s iron ore pellet exports have fallen silent during the past week with the lowering of offers failing to trigger any activity and with buyers refraining from responding given the improved availability of alternatives, traders said on Friday, August 9.
Two officials with at the Pellet Manufacturers’ Association of India (PMAI) said that pellet producers in the eastern Indian state of Odisha and in Raipur in central India have lowered their offers by $4-7/mt week on week to the range of $132-135/mt CFR China.
However, according to market sources, though no significant contracts have been concluded during the past week, reports in the market indicate that Jindal SAW Limited has been able to conclude bookings albeit at the lower offer level of $130/mt CFR China.
“The buying interest in Indian iron ore pellets seen in earlier weeks has been fast running out of steam. This is largely a fallout of the tentative normalization of supplies from buyers’ preferred sources. Resumption of supplies from Vale’s mines in Brazil, the lower-than-expected fall in July shipments from the country, and the adequate import pellet stocks at Chinese ports have triggered a shifting out of interest from Indian pellets,” an Odisha-based miner-exporter said, adding that, with prices of ex-Australia and ex-Brazil lumps softening, it is natural for buyers to decline responding to high alumina-content ex-India pellets.
“The weakening of the RMB during the past week and uncertainties regarding the finished steel price trend in the wake of the fresh China-US trade skirmish have prompted Chinese raw material consumers to rely on existing domestic stocks and to stay away from seaborne cargoes,” the miner-exporter added.